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12A * THURSDAY, JULY 15, 2004
Miss Alice ? American Original
was still shining, at.about 6:30 p.m. She was 94. A memorial service will be held for her on Saturday, July 17, at 6:30 p.m. at the Bay St. Louis Train Depot.
She and her best friend, Herman the smiling dog, entertained both locals and visitors with stories and sprigs of wisdom each day, rain or shine, at her home gallery. She rose each morning to open the gallery, usually sporting her favorite red beret.
Friend Sherry Ponder, who spent many of Moseley?s last days with her, conducted an ?interview? with Miss Alice about a month before her death. ?She wanted to sit in the studio,? said Ponder. ?And though she didn?t wear shoes, she did insist on wearing her red hat.?
Though Miss Alice was known most recently as a folk artist whose paintings reflected the wry humor and special outlook that she had on life, painting was a second career.
By the time she became an artist, Miss Alice had already devoted 30 years to teaching English and -more importantly to her - to the shaping of young minds. That, she once said, was her most important accomplishment. ?A lot more rewarding than working with paint and water? she would say.
She had also devoted many more years to being a wife to husband W. J., who preceded her in death in 1980, and a mother to her only son Tim, who she left behind. Tim, now a counselor in Pass Christian, followed' his mother to the Coast about ten years ago, just a few years after Miss Alice had moved to the area in 1988, at the age of 79.
Tim will continue his mother?s legacy, keeping the gallery operating, and converting what used to be living space into Bay St. Louis? first museum, featuring Miss Alice?s originals and later, Tim?s antique collection. Herman will continue to smile for visitors, coming to'work each day as usual, and returning to spend the night in Pass Christian with Tim.
?I can?t think of anything she would like more than to be remembered,? said Tim. ?For someone to pull into Bay St. Louis and ask for her museum.?
Tim remembers his mother as a woman who liked to do her best at whatever it was she was doing and who was tenacious at reaching her goals.
? I sometimes called her a shameless self-promoter,? , said Tim. ?She would go and greet newcomers and take them a print, but before she left she would ask them to pass out her brochures, and they would. Not everyone had her nerve.?
Hancock Tourism Board director Beth Carriere agrees.
?She did her job and I did mine and together we had a special relationship,? said Carriere on promoting Miss Alice?s art. ?I always felt like I was talking to a contemporary. Behind those beautiful blue eyes and under that white hair was a timeless soul.?
Friend Dale St. Amant met Miss Alice when she brought over her usual print of greeting to St. Amant?s new business right next door to the studio. The two had an instant connection, probably because St. Amant was also a retired English teacher, she said.( Like most everyone who came into contact with Miss Alice, St. Amant admired her spirit and determination .
?If someone would say, have a good day, she would say, ?you? don?t ?have a good day; you make Jit ,a>'good; day*,? said St. Amant. ?She < always 'said that 'a > person . had to have a reason for getting up in the morning,?
Tim also remembers his mother?s love of cooking and ? canning, though funnily enough, Miss Alice herself was not a big eater. She just loved to cook for others.
?She was always fixing something and my dad would eat;,whatever it was she would make,? said Tim. ?I would always be on some special diet' or another and she would get mad at me because I wouldn?t eat what she fixed.? _	'
She also loved to garden and was quite proud of her gardens j said Tim. ?	?
When it came to her art, .Tim said, Miss Alice wasnot ~the kind who had torpaint /everyday;' she 'loved telling stories more.1 And " she turned that art ? of telling stories into a successful career. Even her paintings, all tell a story and Miss Alice used to say that people were buying the stories, not the art. -
?She would start with'a k runny mixture' of paint and ! let it dribble and run down the canvas,? Tim said. ?She painted from her own imag^ ination ... and soon there it * would be.?	'	i??
Miss Alice started painting, she would say, as a therapy, while she was taking
care of her mother, who suffered with Alzheimers. She , would continue to paint after the death of W. J., when she was left alone at their beautiful but remote -home place at Plum Point, near Batesville, Mississippi, just south of the Memphis area. It was during this time that she knew she wanted to make a change.
Some time before, she received several invitations to participate in art shows and pulled one out of the stack at random. The show was in Bay St. ? Louis,, the Beach ] Front, Festival.' She called Serenity Gallery owner Jerry Dixon, who organized the show, and told him she was coming.
?I hadn?t mailed the invi-, tation and had no idea how she got it,? said Dixon. ?But I told her she was welcome. She said, ?I?m a little old lady and need to be under a tree,? so we put her under the only tree there was.? = '
Later, Miss Alice decided she wanted to make the Bay her home and phoned Dixon t to tell him.
?But you don?t know anyone, I said, and she said, ?I ? know you,? and of course she brought people^right tovher door,?' said Dixon.	'?
Miss$ Alice \ 'arid,>' Dixon became fast friends and she always Credited him : with bringing her to the Bay and with' helping her get a start as an? artist here. Along with Tim,!he helped her find the Bookter St. house and, when her ? dog7 Lily^died, ^to'find' Herman at .the animal shek v *
?She?had a unique under' standing ?of people and human.nature,??said ? Dixon.' ?She loved rainbows and felt that.Bay St. Louis was her pot of gold?at the end of-the rainbow?^"v^v-?V; .So' last Friday night, it .was'almost as if by special/ request, Dixon said,'that a double ,rainbow appeared in the sky just? after?6 p.m., and stayed ^ there. Jor. an unusual amount of time. J
?	v?My>-friend Sally?.Baker was driving into town and called5me to look at it,?
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